RCB released 10 players before the IPL 2021 auction.
The 2007 and 2011 World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir pointed out the difference between Royal challengers Bangalore and Kolkata knight Riders and said that Eoin Morgan led KKR have shown that they have faith in their players.
With IPL 2021 auctions set to take place next month, all eight franchises have submitted their comprehensive list of released and retained players to the BCCI.
A lot of obvious decisions were taken with respect to retaining and releasing players are now out in the open. The franchises have surprised many fans by the likes of players that they have decided to release.
RCB has retained 12 players and released 10 players including some big stars like Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, and Moeen Ali. While KKR has retained 17 players and released 5 players.
IPL 2021: Franchise-wise list of all players released and retained
However former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir was upset with the RCB team management for their policy of not backing their players enough after a poor season.
The former however was impressed with his former IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders for backing former captain Dinesh Karthik, who scored just 169 runs during the course of 14 innings at an average of 14.08 in the last season.
Referring to the same Gautam Gambhir pointed out the difference between the two franchises and lauded Kolkata Knight Riders for backing their players.
“Dinesh Karthik had a very bad season last year. He was also removed from the captaincy, but despite that, if you have retained him, it shows that the franchise is backing you. And because of that your confidence increases, and that is the difference between KKR and RCB,” Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
Gautam Gambhir, 39, further hailed the franchise who didn’t release their main players and said that franchises have shown trust in their players by retaining their last year's core and only releasing the extras.
“I am in agreement with all those franchisees who have not released too many players. It shows you have kept confidence in your players. This is called releasing just the excess baggage. So, it is not that surprising. The core is still there, they have not done too many changes,” he said.
"They might probably take one or two players and might have their eyes on them if they can get them. If you see, the playing XI is as it is. Probably all the players they have released were not part of their first playing-XI,” he added.
Gautam Gambhir further praised MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings and said that "Chennai has also done a similar thing; they have also not released too many players apart from the two players who were very expensive," he concluded.
(Star Sports inputs)